Let's look for treasure-Terrance and Phillip

A couple weeks ago I was reading Fiona a book and she told me she wanted to go on an adventure with me. I started trying to come up with ideas to write her a story of us going on an adventure. I failed...I'm not good under pressure.

Last week a coworker mentioned taking his 4 year old daughter treasure hunting. You could probably see the light bulb pop up over my head. He was talking about geocaching.

I'd heard of it before but it was in a episode of Law and Order where the random hikers are looking for a cache and find a body instead. I can be forgiven for not immediately thinking, "I should totally do this with my child."

If you haven't heard of it, here's what geocaching is. You look on line for GPS coordinates where there is a "cache" they you use a GPS (or more likely an app on you phone) to find it. Once at the location you need to find the hidden cache. Some are easier than others. Once you find it you open it up and see what's inside. All caches should have a log (pretty much just a piece of paper you can sign saying you found it) some have toys and trinkets inside. If there are toys and items in there you take one as a souvenir but leave something of equal or greater value behind.  Then you return the cache to where you found it so someone else can find it. There are literally millions of caches around the world. There are dozens right in our neighborhood.

Saturday we went out for a first attempt. We could not find the one around the corner from out house and I was feeling a little silly until I latter found out there are difficulty ratings and this one is not for beginners. We tried again with one a few blocks away and found it. I thought I was doing this to entertain Fiona but nope I'm hooked. It was so much fun.

After a little more research and preparation we went out again Sunday. Our neighbors and their two kids came along. First we went back to the one we'd found Saturday so the neighbors could find it too. Then went to one I knew had trinkets for the kids and Dave spotted it fairly quickly. Well that was it, now the neighbors and the kids were all hooked too. We failed to find the next one we looked for, found the one after that (also full of toys) failed to find one more and then went home. The whole trip took a couple hours and we walked about 3 miles.

Dave and I also hid one of our own but it's not up on the Internet yet. They have to review my posting first (you know me, I might have dropped an F-bomb or just written "boobs" over and over)

So to sum up. Good family fun. Good exercise. And here's the best part, it's free. Also we didn't find any bodies so that's good.


Small update: Since we posted our first ever cache yesterday two people/teams have found it. How fun is this?